Re: [mdb-dev] Building mdbtools-0.5 on Solaris 2.9

[Jeff S. <why...@ya...>]

--- "Richard A. O'Keefe" <ok...@cs...> wrote:
> I want to build mdbtools-0.5 on a SPARC/Solaris 2.9 box.

FWIW, I believe at one time I got mdbtools working on a Sparc/Solaris
(2.)8 machine.

> I'm doing research on some medical data, and some important background
> information has just been made available to me, but only as a .mdb file.
> (It's no use me asking the supplier for something portable, they're only
> a government department and have everything but a clue.)

I work for a government contractor in the USA, so I understand (note that
my work on mdbtools is done on my own time).

> 1.  I only want to build and install the command-line tools.
>     Whyever do I need glib for _that_?

Glib provides stuff such as data structures and other core functionality
that is not provided in standard C.  Note that it does not contain any
graphical functionality.  For the graphical application we use Gtk+,
which does build on top of Glib, to provide graphical functionality.

> 2.  I downloaded and installed glib-2.7.7.
>     Now this is glib 2 point 7 point 7, and the .pc file that's
>     created for it rightly says so.
> 
>     BUT glib-2.7.7 installs everything *else* as "2.0", not 2.7.7.
> 
>     When I do the configure step for mdbtools, it asks pkg-config,
>     and pkg-config says that the version is 2.7.7, but then the
>     configure script screeches in horror that glib is *really* 2.0.
> 
>     Configure is wrong, glib really *really* is 2.7.7, it's just *called* 2.0.
> 
>     i backed out everything I could, reinstalled, and hacked the .pc
>     file to say that the version was 2.0.  That didn't work.  I tried
>     2.0.0, but *that* didn't work.

I believe your Glib install was correct, but the checks in mdbtools 0.5
must not have worked correctly.

> 3.  When I run gmake check during glib installation, some of the tests
>     pass, and some, concerned IIRC with threads, fail.  Since I only
>     want to run the command line tools, does this matter at all?

mdbtools does not utilize Glib's threading features, so it should not matter.

> So, given that I don't particularly want to install a complete Linux
> environment on my Solaris box, and just want to run the command line
> tools, how do I install mdbtools-0.5?

As both 0.5 and 0.6pre1 are so old, I must suggest building from what is in
mdbtools' cvs repository.  That will require that the autotools triad be
installed if it is not already (automake, autoconf, and libtool).

 -- Jeff Smith

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